Archive for August, 2015

With just a month to go my friend (Bob Baltrip) and I are getting excited about our upcoming bear hunt. We’re getting our baiting supplies all lined up along with a few special concoctions that I came up last year on my bear hunt. I didn’t draw a tag this year but my hunting partner Bob did. He’ll be using his Barnett Crossbow for the first time and has it zeroed in. I shot mine last year with a Barnett Predator. We’ve settled on the Rage broadhead (I think) cause it did the job last year, and so far I’ve taken 5 deer with that set-up.

There will certainly be a different twist to this years hunt, as both our wives are going along. It’s been 42 years since we first started hunting the Baldwin camp near Marquette, and our wives have never gone on a hunt. So I don’t know how much hunting we are actually going to get in, because the ladies have plans up their sleeves I’m thinking! I know they want to do the Pictured Rocks cruise, spend time with Nancy and Gary Baldwin, and of course do some shopping.

In the old days of bear hunting it would have been next to impossible to take the women (to primitive!) Now that the new camp is up and running it’s women and family friendly. Why there’s even a “big screen T.V. even though the camp is off grid! Gary, Gregg, Dick, and their families and friends did an awesome job of doing this camp “right!”

One evening last week Bob and his wife Linda cooked up the last of my bear roast and had my wife and I over for dinner. He cooked it in a slow cooker with potatoes and carrots. It may have been the best bear roast I’ve ever eaten. Bob’s daughter Kelly had tasted it before we got there, and she made Bob promise to save some for her and her daughter Hanna! Now that’s my kind of women! We did our best to “limit” ourselves, and actually came away very satisfied and thankful. There is nothing you can buy in the store that is better than “natures bounty!”

What may seem like a stupid question at first sight evidently is not seen that way by the 7th. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court issued its ruling Thursday in a case involving Mariano Meza-Rodriguez. His family brought him to the United States from Mexico illegally when he was four or five years old, according to the 7th Circuit ruling. Now an adult, he was arrested in 2013 after a bar fight in Milwaukee. Police found a .22-caliber bullet in his shorts pocket.

Federal law prohibits people in the country illegally from possessing guns or ammunition. Meza-Rodriguez argued that the charges should be dismissed because the law infringes on his Second Amendment right to bear arms. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa rejected that contention on the broad grounds that the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to people in the country illegally. Meza-Rodriguez was ultimately convicted of a felony and deported.

The 7th Circuit panel, however, ruled unanimously Thursday that the term “the people” in the Second Amendment’s guarantee that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed also applies to those in the country illegally. The ruling, which applies in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, conflicts with opinions from three other federal appellate courts in recent years that found the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to people in the country illegally.

“We see no principled way to carve out the Second Amendment and say that the unauthorized (or maybe all noncitizens) are excluded,” Chief Judge Diane Wood wrote.

But the panel upheld Meza-Rodriguez’s conviction, saying the federal ban on people in the country illegally possessing weapons remains valid. Wood wrote that the right to bear arms isn’t unlimited and the government has a strong interest in preventing people who have already broken the law by coming to the country illegally from carrying guns.

Meza-Rodriguez’s attorney, Joseph Bugni, said the decision contradicts itself. He plans to ask all nine active 7th Circuit judges to review the case together. If Meza-Rodriguez doesn’t prevail at that level he’ll go to the U.S. Supreme Court, Bugni said. All I can say is it would almost seem funny, but these rulings continue to get more brazen and bizarre as courts continue to make laws contrary to their intent!

Bear season is just a month away here in Michigan. Brother Randy is heading up to Marquette with his son Justin and Justin’s wife Jill along with their two kids. They have two coveted first hunt permits, and from early reports bear hunting should be good. One has been spotted wandering the perimeter of the Baldwin camp, and I’m sure he’s a candidate for someones freezer!

I’ll be arriving at camp a few weeks behind them, as my buddy Bob’s permit is for the third hunt period. I did not draw a permit this year, but will try my darndest to get one in range for my old friend. Were in the process of collecting bait and getting mentally prepared for taking our wives along! Did I just really say that? Yes we are combining our bear hunt with some “away” time with our wives, and will spend some special time with Gary and Nancy Baldwin. Along with Gary’s father Dick they have been our host for these past 43 years, and what great host they have been. Our families have become quite close.

Of the 45 bear we have harvested, over the years, the one in the above picture is the largest (heaviest.) It topped the scales at just over 500 pounds, but did not rank as high in the record book, as one my brother Darryl shot a few years after I got mine. Record books go by skull size, and Darryl shot a 5-1/2 year old bear with a huge skull. At one time it was the second largest ever taken with a recurve in Michigan. It also was a big bear (around 450 pounds,) but had the genetics for a “fat head!” My bear (above) ranked 17th. by Commemorative Bucks was an older boar being 13-1/2 years old. We have taken only three others that were of these proportions, with most bear being in the 150-250 pound range. Just like with deer the smaller younger bear have a better flavor when put in the frying pan.

Just bought me a couple of Wildgame trail cams, and I plan on putting them to good use. I’m hoping for some colder weather at the end of September when our hunt starts, but you never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at you. I know it’s hard to believe, but one year our water froze during the Sept 10th. bear hunt. I don’t expect that this year, but I’m hoping I’m not sweating to death either. Counting the days.

Trail cameras have come a long way since they first came on the market. They are an indispensable tool in any serious hunters arsenal. If you want to know how the deer move around your hunting area then a few trail camera’s are the ticket.

As you set them up in strategic places you can gain knowledge of the quarry you seek. You can find out “who” is feeding at various food sources and the time of day. What deer uses what runway, and the direction of travel. You can see how many does you have and which ones have fawns. As a bonus you may find turkeys, coyotes, bear, and foxes on your scouting camera.

The earlier they are placed the better for you to establish a particular deers movements. Hunters who successfully bag big deer, year after year, have learned to use trail camera’s to their benefit.

I am posting three recent trail cam pictures of two bucks in Ohio and one in Michigan that have “trophy” written all over them. All three are record class bucks that probably would hardly be seen if it weren’t for trail cam scouting! When you know you have Monster Bucks like these running around, you know where to concentrate your efforts. The 8 point Ohio buck is “off the charts” for an eight pointer. This is a “world-class” deer and will definitely score over the Boone and Crockett minimum of 170! The Ohio 10 pointer (I think) also is a high scoring deer that would score over 170 and the Michigan deer (by the closeline pole) is about as nice a buck you will find afield. (Note:) The Michigan buck was located with a trail camera, but this photo is from a digital camera that shows off the bucks “attributes” better!

Yes trail camera’s can certainly help, but a whole lot of planning has to fall into place in order to bring home one of these “bruisers!

Doug Harder of Sandpoint, Idaho, snapped this photograph of the young bear, whose head got stuck in his cat door last Thursday. (Note: Go to Harders Facebook site below to see picture of the bear.)

The bear had tried “again and again to get through,” Harder wrote on Facebook. It’s believed that the bear burglar had been trying to get to some food.

Harder said he had come home from vacation the day before to find his condo in total disarray. He says that a bear had ransacked the place, entering through his sliding door before swiping some brownie mix, a Toblerone bar and a can of Pepsi. The bear also left a large pile of poop in the living room.

According to Harder, the same bear returned the next day and attempted to squeeze through his cat door. He told ABC News, however, that he didn’t feel afraid as he knew the bear was too big to wiggle through.

A bear broke into his home Wednesday while Harder was out. The bear entered through the sliding door on Harder’s second-floor deck and ransacked his condo.

It took two hours to clean up the mess, but Harder is relieved that he wasn’t home — not that time, at least.

The first visit by the bear was in May, when a family of bears climbed up the side of Harder’s home and onto his deck. Harder watched from the living room, shooting video as a bear and two cubs polished off birdseed from his feeder.

“I knocked on the door and the cubs looked at me but they could care less that I was there,” Harder recalls.

They returned the next day and polished off four cans of Dr. Pepper on the deck. Hoping to deter future visits, Harder scrubbed the deck with chlorine bleach and got a smaller bird feeder.

Hey it’s been one of those years that usually happen once in a life time! Up to this point in my 68 years I have never caught the amount of nice sized largemouth bass like this year. It all started when my daughter got a place on a little pond that used to be a quarry. Her kids told me there were fish in the lake and shortly there after I was wetting some lines.

I caught 6 bass the first time I tried, and at this point I have caught (and released) 29 of these acrobatic show-offs. Just yesterday I caught 2 more with one of them ranking right up top for the biggest this year. My grand-daughter Addy also caught one and my other grand-daughter McKenzie had a big one shake her hook!

I started fishing with the usual plastic worms, spinners, and jigs. Live night crawlers seemed to work best until I tried offering them a smallish sunfish on a big bobber. That my fellow fishermen was the ticket to success. A large hook just under the dorsal fin with a big bobber 3 foot up the line has been hard to beat. I even tried chubs one evening and they also worked great. When I haven’t had the live fish I have done alright with a dew worm. Problem with that is the numerous sunfish and bluegill will strip that worm off the hook faster than you can re-bait it.

I have had so much fun helping my 12 grandkids land their first bass that I’m making a photo album for them. Next time I go to my daughters; McKenzie will be right by my side. Close doesn’t count, we want to land one, snap a picture, and release him to fight another day. These lazy summer days with 4-6 pound bass straining my line, doing their circus leaps, and then posing for a snapshot, will certainly be a summer the “Bassinator” will remember.

At least one grizzly bear is thought to have killed and partially eaten a hiker in America’s famed Yellowstone National Park, authorities said.

The National Park Service said the man’s body was found Friday and though the exact cause of death had not been determined, he had defensive wounds on his forearms.

“Based on partial tracks found at the scene, it appears that an adult female grizzly and at least one cub… were present and likely involved in the incident,” the park service said in a statement Saturday.

The man was from Montana and was a long-term seasonal employee of Medcor, a company that runs three health clinics in the Wyoming park.

He was reported missing Friday morning when he did not show up for work. The victim’s body had been partially devoured and “cached” — or covered — near Lake Village, officials said.

Wildlife biologists have set bear traps in the area and if any captured beasts are identified as having been involved in the attack, they will be killed.

“We may not be able to conclusively determine the circumstances of this bear attack, but we will not risk public safety,” said Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk.

My grandson works as a computer programmer at Yellowstone and is aware of the dangers lurking in and around the park. You won’t hear much about it but this is the third death in Yellowstone this year. Tourist forget these are wild animals and it’s their turf. Steep cliffs, raging waters, hidden hot springs, big powerful grizzly bears, and wild animals of all sorts await those that let their guard down for one second. I will write more about this at a later date.

The “Elks Club” has state offices in Gaylord Mi. They have about one hundred acres fenced in with elk roaming all over the place. It’s quite a tourist attraction, located within the city limits. We were within 10 yards of some of these 600 pound monarchs! There size is impressive, but these elk had all but lost their “wildness”!

This encounter took me back to my one and only Colorado elk hunt. These wild elk were just entering the first phase of the rut, and trust me, up close and personal took on a whole new meaning.

Nine years ago I hunted a 10,000 acre ranch in the southwest corner of Colorado. We had been seeing elk every day, as the three of us split up, and hunted the various “honey holes” on the huge spread. About three days into the hunt I built a ground blind on the edge of a scrub oak thicket surrounded with thorn bushes. I had placed a camo bucket on the ground and cut a shooting window through the front of the prickly needles. It was open on the sides, but I still was well concealed by the surrounding scrub oaks. The elk were using the ridges that surrounded the little flat valley I had set up in.

I arrived at my set up well before the elk were moving to the lower elevation fields. I started cow calling around 4:00 p.m. and in no time received several responses. The big 5×5 we had been seeing already had about 20 cows in his harem, but several satellite bulls were eager to try their luck with the “ladies!” About a half hour had passed when a bull came down the ridge in front of me, and stared in my direction. He was about 70 yards away, and I could tell he was excited. I got my bow ready, and made another series of cow calls. I wasn’t prepared for what happened next! He ran full tilt and literally crashed into the front of my blind. Had it not been for the thorns, I would of been trampled to death-or worse! I crouched as low as I could on the bucket, as the bull circled the blind and stopped 8 feet to my right. I literally could not move an eyelash. The young spike bull (2-1/2 foot spikes) glared into the scrub oak behind me. His eyes were glazed and bloodshot. Almost as if he’d been on an all night binge! Long rivers of drool flowed out of his mouth, as his nostrils flared, and he let out a bugle that actually moved leaves around me. To say I was intimidated would be an understatement. I wanted to mount an elk, not have one mount me!! I couldn’t even shoot in self defense, as elk have to carry four point on one side to be legal in that area. All I could do was stay “frozen” and try to control my breathing. The bull finally headed back directly behind me, and when he was about 40 yards away caught my wind, and vacated the area. Whew! that was to close for comfort. I could of actually touched this fired up spike with the end of my bow.

Bill and Ken got quite a kick out of my retelling of the story around the fireplace that evening. I took some good natured razing for the rest of the trip, but was thankful that I was still the hunter and not the hunted.

Two women jogging out of an Alaskan back country lodge startled a grizzly on the Kenai Peninsula Wednesday. The male grizzly attack Gabriele Markel as it stepped out of the thick brush. Markel was flown to a hospital in Anchorage and is in good condition. She had bites on her head, back, and arms.

Markel and her co-worker Kaitlyn Haley were jogging on the Cottonwood Creek Trail near Upper Skilak Lake when the bear attacked. They were about 3/4 of a mile from the lodge. After the bear pounced on Markel , Haley ran back to the lodge for help. Several employees ran back toward the scene armed with pepper spray, but ended up meeting Markel on the way back to the lodge. The bear was long gone. Markel had a can of pepper spray with her, but everything happened so fast she never got a chance to use it! Lodge staff members provided what medical care they could before Markel made the 20 mile boat ride to the Skilak boat landing where she was then flown by helicopter to the Anchorage hospital.

Steve Miller the refuge manager said that salmon where running in the Cottonwood Creek and the bear are seeking out this natural food source. He said it is possible that the bear did not hear the joggers due to the noise coming from the stream, and reacted to the surprise encounter. The trail has been temporarily closed until further investigation takes place.

I remember from my old boy scout days the scout “motto” was “Be Prepared.” Well October first is fast approaching and it is time to get your act together concerning the upcoming bow season.

I drove over to my lease property this morning in Hillsdale thinking I was prepared to take care of business. The first thing I did was check out my “hay blind.” We’ve had a lot of rain this month, and the ole blind didn’t fare to well from all the moisture. I had placed a tarp over the roof of the blind, but evidently the wind blew part of it off, and some of the bales fell to the ground. At this point it does not look like this experiment is going to be a rousing success. Oh well, if it doesn’t pan out I at least have some feed for the deer.

Next I attempted to put my rivers edge 20 foot tree stand up. I am not a tall person (5-7) but I am stout (225), and do you think I could get that darn 89 pound ladder stand in a vertical position? I think “physics” comes into play here somewhere! Not to mention the fact that I haven’t lifted weights or worked out in many moons. Anyway this “little girly man” had to leave the rivers edge laying on its side-horizontally. Part of “being prepared” has to do with being in good physical condition. Looks like I start hitting the weight room, before I can’t even lift my bow and arrows.

Next I cut some shooting lanes, and did a little scouting for deer sign. One of the areas I hunt, the woods butts up to a 120 acre corn field. I was dumbfounded to see the amount of corn stalks laying on the ground. No wonder farmers complain about crop damage from deer. This farmer will loose many acres, to the deer, before he picks his corn this fall.

While I was driving to my area I saw several other hunters doing the same thing I was doing-getting prepared. I will be going back over, in a couple days, with reinforcements to tackle those ladder stands. I tried to get help on this trip, but seems no one wants to help bake the pie-they just like to eat it!